June 05 2017

EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH— Following the public unveiling of concept plans to create the first regional park in the BREC system at Greenwood Park, which will involve the relocation and development of a state of the art Zoo in a more sustainable location of East Baton Rouge Parish, BREC will hold a public meeting where residents can weigh in on the proposed plans, hear a presentation from Superintendent Carolyn McKnight, submit questions to BREC staff regarding the plans, and provide comments for BREC’s consideration. The meeting will be held Thursday, June 15 at the Womack Ballroom located at 6201 Florida Boulevard at 6:30 p.m.

For those who are unable to attend in person, the meeting will be streamed live on BREC’s website at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/brec-commission-meetings and broadcast on Facebook Live. Viewers are also welcome to send in questions that night on BREC’s Facebook page: @brecparks or any time leading up to June 15 by emailing them to info@brec.org.

“We are excited to share our plans with the public after months of moving very deliberately to create a plan that will position BREC and its partners as change agents for East Baton Rouge Parish when it comes to enhancing quality of life, spurring economic activity, attracting tourists, and creating premier parks and attractions that will benefit the entire community,” said BREC Superintendent Carolyn McKnight. “We made a commitment – one we take very seriously – that we would engage in thoughtful and productive dialogue about these plans with residents and community leaders as we work together to formalize this vision and take it from imagination to reality. This meeting is a first step in that direction,” said McKnight.

After the presentation at the May 2017 BREC Commission meeting, BREC posted detailed information about the plans online for residents to review, including an electronic survey where site visitors can weigh in on the types of amenities they would like to see in a reimagined Greenwood Regional Park. Those who are unable to attend the upcoming community meeting in person are encouraged to go to: www.brec.org/ReimagineGreenwood to see the plans and make their voices heard through the survey, which was put in place as a means to gather input and generate exciting ideas for building upon these initial concepts for a reimagined Greenwood Regional Park. Residents who prefer a Zoo instead of the reimagined Greenwood Regional Park are welcome to indicate that preference in the comments section at the end of the survey.

McKnight noted these types of online community polls and community meetings serve as helpful inputs for the generation of ideas, gathering of feedback and perspectives, and understanding of community sentiments – all of which will be taken into account by BREC as part of this planning process. However, they are by no means scientific in terms of gathering a representative sample of all East Baton Rouge Parish residents. If the BREC Commission seeks to pursue the implementation of a reimagined Greenwood Regional Park and a more sustainable location for the Zoo, BREC staff will initiate significant community outreach and planning efforts to identify the most appropriate site for the Zoo, develop a master plan for both sites, and determine funding options related to each location. Any such outreach will be accompanied by statistically valid and scientific community surveys – as these are the more valid, industry-accepted community input mechanisms for such large-scale projects – regarding these significant investments in the quality of life for residents across this region, much like what BREC has done in the past and will continue to do moving forward.